In this study, we are investigated the urban forestry cover of the urban areas in Dublin. This project was conducted in partnership with the four Dublin councils (Fingal, Dublin City, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown and South Dublin) and the... more
In this study, we are investigated the urban forestry cover of the urban areas in Dublin. This project was conducted in partnership with the four Dublin councils (Fingal, Dublin City, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown and South Dublin) and the Office of Public Works.
We quantified the canopy cover area and assessed its spatial distribution, identified the proportion of canopy in public ownership and estimated the environmental services provided by the current canopy cover.
To accomplish this quickly and accurately needs a suite of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tools. Firstly, to locate the tree canopy we used image classification software to identify canopy from high-resolution satellite imagery. Then, to determine the proportion of canopy in public ownership we used other GIS data, such as the road and building locations. Finally, we used the i-Tree software to estimate the environmental services provided by the current canopy.
Hitchhiker's guide to shared green spaces in urban areas. Methodology of the creation of shared green spaces and implementation procedures by education. The paper goes through the concept of accessibility of green areas in Cyprus, Greece,... more
Hitchhiker's guide to shared green spaces in urban areas. Methodology of the creation of shared green spaces and implementation procedures by education. The paper goes through the concept of accessibility of green areas in Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, and Spain through the historical analysis of shared green areas, community-based education, current laws and regulations on green areas in Europe and the analysis of accessibility and inclusion concepts.
The role of urban parks in delivering cultural ecosystem services related to outdoor recreation is widely acknowledged. Yet, the question remains as to whether the recreational opportunities of parks meet the demands of increasingly... more
The role of urban parks in delivering cultural ecosystem services related to outdoor recreation is widely acknowledged. Yet, the question remains as to whether the recreational opportunities of parks meet the demands of increasingly multicultural societies and whether recreational patterns vary at spatial scales. In a pan-European survey, we assessed how people use urban parks (in five cities, N = 3814) and how recreational patterns relate to respondents’ sociocultural and geographical contexts (using 19 explanatory variables). Our results show that across Europe (i) respondents share a general pattern in their recreational activities with a prevalence for the physical uses of parks, especially taking a walk; (ii) the geographic context matters, demonstrating a high variety of uses across the cities; and that (iii) the sociocultural context is also important; e.g., the occupation and biodiversity valuations of respondents are significantly associated with the uses performed. The sociocultural context matters particularly for physical park uses and is associated to a lesser extent with nature-related uses. Given that our results attest to a high variety of park uses between sociocultural groups and the geographical context, we conclude that it is important to consider the specific backgrounds of people to enhance recreational ecosystem services in greenspace development.
